Maryland Politics: February 5, 2006 - February 11, 2006

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley on Saturday dismissed as "politically motivated" a recently disclosed grant by the administration of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) to a University of Maryland researcher to determine whether Baltimore and several other jurisdictions are correctly...

Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele expressed qualified support today for embryonic stem cell research, two days after causing an uproar by linking the science to medical experimentation during the Holocaust. Steele, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, used a...

Michael Steele had some apologizing to do Friday. It was a day after the Republican Senate candidate and lieutenant governor had compared embryonic stem cell research to Nazi experimentation, offending some who heard him speak at the Baltimore Jewish Council....

Maryland's General Assembly is "way out in front" as the worst state legislature in the U.S., according to a columnist for the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page's online OpinionJournal.com. Writer John H. Fund points to the reversal of the governor's...

Persistent worries among Democrats about how -- and when -- Maryland's highest court will resolve the question of same-sex marriage has prompted a second attempt by House members to delay any ruling from taking effect before November's election. Del....

Maryland's two leading Democratic candidates for governor each, in their own way, sought yesteday to bolster their crime-fighting bona fides. Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan yukked it up on a Baltimore radio show hosted by Ed Norris, who once...

A pair of Maryland professors hired by the State Board of Elections to study voter-verification equipment told legislators yesterday that the technology makes it more difficult to vote, increases the time it takes to participate and decreases the privacy with...

Former Takoma Park City Council member Heather R. Mizeur, a Democrat running for the House of Delegates, has put her party's leadership on notice that she and other gay and lesbian voters expect full marriage rights. In a letter...

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the day Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. fired long-time aide Joseph Steffen for a series of Internet postings in which he described an orchestrated effort to smear one of the governor's political rivals. And...

In his run for governor, Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan has taken his share of swipes at Democratic rival Martin O'Malley for his handling of crime in Baltimore. Tomorrow Duncan will be chatting with a guy with first-hand knowledge...

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said he was surprised by the the state's high court decision to halt the execution scheduled for this week of Vernon L. Evans Jr., who was first sentenced to die more than two decades ago...

The state Senate broke from a partisan debate over air pollution this morning to get some nonpartisan advice from one of the state's political legends: Comptroller William Donald Schaefer (D). Both chambers of the General Assembly celebrated Schaefer's more than...

More than a dozen Maryland political enthusiasts have expressed interest in running for the open 3rd District congressional seat this year, and that group will now include Annapolis businessman John White. White is one of the few Republicans to express...

This just in: Maryland's new law forcing Wal-Mart to spend more on employee health care is now the subject of a lawsuit. The national Retail Industry Leaders Association filed the suit, which asserts that Maryland's law, and a similar one...

It took a few Democrats by surprise when Gov. Bob Ehrlich unloaded Monday on Democratic lawmakers, blasting them for overriding a record number of his vetoes. "Some of these votes are meant to embarrass me and the administration," said Ehrlich,...

The Greater Washington Board of Trade's legislative briefing wrapped up this morning with a request for political predictions. First from Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman Sheila Hixson (D-Montgomery), who offered more of a wish than a prediction. The Democratic Party,...

Lots of people have been speculating that Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan and state Sen. Gwendolyn Britt would get together for an announcement, but this wasn't it. Duncan, who's seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, appeared in neighboring Prince George's...

Ever wonder who are the most liberal and most conservative members of the Maryland General Assembly? A group calling itself the Maryland Accountability Project has developed rankings based on how all 188 lawmakers voted on 25 bills last year. Findings,...